I cover energy, water, clean tech, waste of many kinds, green business, green building, and more for The New York Times, Wired News, International Herald Tribune -- and now Forbes! In my spare time I like to travel and garden.

Can Voluntary Sustainability Change the World?

Architect Ed Mazria has been recognized for his work to move the building sector to a more sustainable path. He has done this by setting voluntary targets via his nonprofit Architecture 2030. Yesterday he was awarded the 2011 Purpose Prize, an award given to social entrepreneurs over 60. Civic Ventures, a think tank focused on encore careers that emphasize social purpose, awarded Mazria, 71, and four others the annual $100,000 prize, funded by the Atlantic Philanthropies and the John Templeton Foundation. Mazria will donate his award to further the work of Architecture 2030.

The Santa Fe, N.M.–based architect was shocked in 2002 when he calculated that the building sector consumes approximately half of all U.S. energy produced and creates about half of all greenhouse gas emissions. His analysis was based on U.S. Energy Information Administration data, although Mazria told me the energy footprints of buildings in developed countries worldwide are likely comparable.

In response, Mazria issued the 2030 Challenge, encouraging architects, building firms, and others in the building sector to reduce energy use and greenhouse gas emissions in the built environment to “net zero” by 2030 by changing the way buildings are planned, designed and constructed.

“Net zero” or “carbon neutral” means that buildings don’t consume more energy than they generate. In practice that generally means dramatically reducing energy consumption through passive design measures and installing a small amount of on-site energy generation, often solar.

The voluntary challenge was quickly adopted by many industry groups and governments, including the American Institute of Architects, the U.S. Green Building Council, the National Governors Association, and the U.S. Conference of Mayors. Architecture 2030 also claims that many of the world’s top architecture, engineering, and planning firms have taken the challenge, including ARUP, Perkins+Will, Jacobs, HKS, and HOK.

Many people think voluntary measures can’t be effective, that government enforcement is required to make change happen. And indeed, the 2030 goals have been made into legislation and building codes — but only after most industry players were enthusiastically supportive.

For example, the 2007 Energy Independence and Security Act required all new federal buildings to meet the energy performance standards set forth in the 2030 challenge. Cities and states, including California, Minnesota, Illinois, and Washington, have adopted the challenge.

“A transformation is now underway, and it’s exhilarating to witness,” Mazria said yesterday. “We are moving the built environment from the major contributor to the most effective solution to the energy and climate change crises. It’s a great honor for our work to be recognized by the Purpose Prize.”

When I interviewed him in 2008, Mazria noted that the ordinary workings of the market will result in a dramatic changeover of building stock by 2035. Three years ago, U.S. building stock covered about 28 billion square meters of floor space. Builders are likely demolish about 4.9 billion square meters over the next 30 years, renovate 14 billion square meters, and add 14 billion square meters of new stock. “So by 2035,more than three-quarters of the built environment will either be new or renovated, ”he said.

This year Architecture 2030 introduced the 2030 Challenge for Products, which set benchmarks for reducing the carbon footprint of materials used in the building industry. That means measuring and reducing the embodied energy of a product throughout the supply chain, from materials extraction to processing to transportation to product use and disposal.

“Interestingly, there are about five or six categories of products that give off the most emissions in the whole building: concrete, steel, carpet….” said Mazria yesterday. “So you don’t have to do every product. If you just do the major products, you can get huge reductions.”

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